Date with the Divine

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Romans 16:16.

Recently my granddaughter was sick with a lingering virus and could not attend her daycare for her scheduled days. After being out of her routine for a week, she was reluctant to enter her classroom, preferring to cling to me. I admit I was tired of her toddler company as I usually have her two days a week and it had spiked to five.

Full disclosure, the week we had spent together had drained my patience reserves. For three of the five sick days, she had a fever but refused to swallow medicine to bring it down. Instead, she decided that laying on my chest for three straight days while watching endless musical sign language videos http://www.signingtime.com was just fine with her. It was like wearing a very hot and heavy sweater for three days.

Dear reader, I don’t know if you have ever spent any considerable length of time with a two-year-old, but they are notoriously needy and are masters at sapping your energy with military precision. That is when they are healthy! Let’s just say I was *really * looking forward to making a quick getaway.

My granddaughter was not on board with my plan. She was happy to remain in the hallway, checking out a hamster in his cage. However, the moment I tried to bring her across the threshold of her classroom door, you would have thought she was an uninvited vampire about to burst into flames. She commenced whining and crying and became a dead weight, and I had to drag her into the classroom. I resigned myself to sitting on the floor, holding her in my lap until she reacclimated to her toddler terrain.

Then came the God moment. The one I believe that He knew I needed, but I didn’t. A little girl named Juniper, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a cupid bow mouth walked by. I commented that I liked the frilly tutu and fuzzy slippers she was wearing. Juniper was happy I was appreciative of her aesthetic and warmed to me like a flower to the sun. Then she just stopped and stared at me, a very long gaze with direct eye contact. Juniper’s soul gaze was rather startling at first, especially in an age where people barely look up from their phone screens to acknowledge your existence. Had this been a fellow adult this would have been uncomfortable, but with Juniper, it felt like she was looking for something in me and then, satisfied that she had found it, said, ” I want to kiss you.”

I looked to the teacher for my cue. She nodded her head that it was fine. I gave Juniper the green light. She gave me a feather-light kiss. She repeated gazing into my soul and said, ” I want to hug you.” I was genuinely happy to accept. Juniper gives amazing hugs. Long, not stingy.

I asked the teacher, ” Are the toddlers always so affectionate?” She assured me they were.

After my granddaughter decided my lap was now sufficiently boring, she moved on to playing and I began the drive home. In the quiet of my car, I found myself with tears streaming down my face. I had no idea how much I needed this refreshing affection. Affection devoid of romantic agenda, guile, or deceit as the Bible intends for this command in Romans 16:16.

It’s not every day that I feel God personally greets me, but that morning, His love was wearing a tutu and fizzy slippers.

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